Women's and Gender Studies can be defined as the study of
how gender is constructed, how it is inflected by differences of race, ethnicity,
sexuality, class, etc., how gender affects the experiences and situations of
men and women, and how assumptions about gender influence the construction of
knowledge and experience. The program in Women's and Gender Studies is therefore
open to students majoring in a wide variety of disciplines who wish to focus
in a coherent way on gender issues. The program is designed to introduce students
to scholarship in Women's and Gender Studies, which has brought neglected material
into established fields and raised important methodological questions about
sex and gender that cross disciplinary boundaries and challenge established
intellectual frameworks.

To fulfill the requirements for a concentration in the Women's
and Gender Studies Program, students will take five courses. Women's and Gender
Studies 101, Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies, introduces
students to major works in the development of modern feminist thought and to
issues central to Women's and Gender Studies. Students are encouraged to take
Women's and Gender Studies 101 in their first or second year. In addition, students
elect three Women's and Gender Studies courses from at least two departments.
Electives will vary according to the course offerings each year. Students may
develop a student-initiated course as an elective. In order to confront the
breadth of issues raised by Women's and Gender Studies as an interdisciplinary
mode of inquiry, students are advised to distribute their choices as widely
as possible. In their junior or senior year, after taking Women's and Gender
Studies 101 and two electives, one of which may be taken concurrently, students
are required to take a Women's and Gender Studies seminar, in which they will
write a substantial essay or develop a project in an area of special interest.
This seminar explores topics in Women's and Gender Studies. The topic varies
from year-to-year. Under exceptional circumstances, the chair can allow an Independent
Study to substitute for the seminar. Students may take more than one seminar,
space permitting.

Students are urged to declare a concentration in the Women's
and Gender Studies Program by the fall semester of their junior year. To do
this, or to obtain further information about the program, contact the Women's
and Gender Studies chair, Stetson D13, x2305.

CONTRACT MAJOR IN WOMEN'S AND GENDER STUDIES

In consultation with the chair of Women's and Gender Studies,
students may develop a contract major proposal in Women's or Gender Studies.
Interested students should meet with the chair in the first semester of the
sophomore year. Students proposing a contract major should take Women's and
Gender Studies 101 and plan to take Women's and Gender Studies 402 in their
junior or senior year. Contract major proposals must be approved by the Committee
on Educational Policy.

THE DEGREE WITH HONORS IN WOMEN'S AND GENDER STUDIES

Honors in Women's and Gender Studies may be granted to concentrators
or contract majors after an approved candidate completes a thesis (493-W031,
W031-494) or honors project (491-W030, W030-492), delivers a public presentation
of the work, and is awarded an honors grade by her/his advisor and one other
reader from the Women's and Gender Studies Program.

The honors project may be one semester (plus winter study)
or a year-long project. It may consist of a conventional research thesis of
40-70 pages or of other modes of presentation (e.g., art, music, poetry, theater,
fiction). Proposals for non-thesis projects may include evidence of experience
and competence in the chosen mode.

A student may become a candidate for honors in Women's and
Gender Studies after the following criteria are met:

1) in April of the junior year, submission and Women's and
Gender Studies Committee approval of a 4- to 6-page project proposal, in which
the ideas, aim, general methodology, and preliminary bibliography for the project
are outlined and a faculty advisor is named;

2) at the end of the junior year, cumulative grade point average
of B+ from courses in two of the three academic divisions (humanities, social
science, natural science);

3) on the first day of classes of the senior year, submission
and approval by the faculty advisor of a 5- to 10-page prospectus for the project.

All honors work, including the public presentation will be
graded by at least two faculty members-a third will be consulted if there is
a significant discrepancy between the first two graders. Readers' grades will
be averaged and honors will be awarded as follows: A+/A Highest Honors;
A-/B+ Honors.

Courses

[ ] Courses not offered in 2000-2001 are listed in brackets.

* An asterisk indicates that the course meets the Peoples and
Cultures distribution requirement.

Women's and Gender Studies 402 The Personal and The Political:
Confessional Narrative and Feminist Politics+

Elective Courses

Students will elect three Women's and Gender Studies courses
from at least two different departments. See department listings for full descriptions.
Note: Depending on the topic(s) of course papers and their ability and willingness
to do supplemental reading, students can transform other courses into electives.
Anyone who is interested in such an option must consult the program chair at
the beginning of the semester in order to sign a course "contract."

[American Studies/Women's and Gender Studies 346 Women of
Color in the U.S.: Public and Private Cultures*]